Top Indian wrestlers on Sunday resumed their protest against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the chief of the sport’s governing body who has been accused of sexually harassing female players.

Several athletes, including Olympic bronze medal winners Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia and Commonwealth Games gold medal winner Vinesh Phogat, started a sit-in protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar seeking action against the Wrestling Federation of India president.

The athletes had leveled the allegations against Singh, who is also a Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Kaiserganj, first on January 18 during a protest at the same site.

On Sunday, Phogat told reporters at a press conference that that the wrestlers have been going through mental torture, ANI reported. “It’s about the respect of women athletes,” she added. “We aren’t receiving any response from Union Sports Ministry, it’s been three months.”

Seven women wrestlers, including a minor, on Friday filed a sexual harassment complaint against Singh at the Connaught Place police station in Delhi, Malik said. She added that a first information report has not been filed yet.

A complaint has also been filed with the Delhi Commission for Women. Its head Swati Maliwal on Sunday wrote to the deputy commissioner of police, saying “this is a very serious matter” concerning the safety and security of women wrestlers.

Maliwal asked the police about the reasons for the delay in filing the FIR. “Some of the complainants and their family members have started getting phone calls enquiring about the identities of the complainants from an IPS [Indian Police Service] officer posted in Department of Sports,” she said.

On January 23, the sports ministry had formed a oversight committee, headed by boxing legend MC Mary Kom, to investigate the allegations by the wrestlers.

The committee was given a one-month deadline. But the panel submitted its report in the first week of April and its findings have not been made public so far, according to PTI. Singh had appeared before the Indian Olympic Association and the government’s oversight committee in connection with the case.

Earlier this month, Phogat had said that the athletes have lost faith in the committee and were considering legal action against Singh.

“Why is there secrecy over the findings of the oversight committee and the details about how they went about the probe?” she had asked. “Women wrestlers have shown the courage to speak about what they faced but it seems like their words don’t matter.”

Singh, who has completed 12 years as the Wrestling Federation of India president, has denied the allegations against him. But the athletes have insisted that they know at least 10-12 women who have been sexually harassed by him.

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